TENNIS

TENNIS; Amid More Upsets, Pierce Is Booed and Beaten

By ROBIN FINN

Published: May 29, 1998

PARIS, May 28—
For the players who waited to get onto the courts and for the spectators who huddled beneath umbrellas through a three-hour rain delay today, another inhospitable day unfolded at the French Open. With the second round still incomplete, the tournament has already lost 11 of its 32 seeded players.

Today, sixth-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the 1996 French Open champion from Russia, and 11th-seeded Mary Pierce, a runner-up in 1994 of France, became the latest shell-shocked contenders to sink into the bog on center court.

The erratic Kafelnikov pumped out 80 unforced errors and seemed on the verge of becoming unhinged in the final set of his 4-6, 7-6 (12-10), 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 collapse against 19th-ranked Thomas Enqvist of Sweden, who had never won at Roland Garros until this year and had never before performed in the main stadium.

''I can't explain what's going on, I just have to take it like a man; but when your confidence is gone, it's difficult to beat any opponent,'' Kafelnikov said. He squandered four set points in the second set and then lost a 3-1 lead in the third.

Kafelnikov confirmed that he seemed locked in the same sort of ''vicious circle'' that had sent Sergi Bruguera, a two-time French Open champion, home to Spain after a first-round stumble and sent top-seeded Pete Sampras home to Florida following his hollow second-round loss to the previously unheard-of Ramon Delgado of Paraguay.

''It's all in the head, but once you're in a hole, it's so hard to get out,'' Kafelnikov said of this contagion of eroding confidence among several top male players. ''I cannot explain the why and how and what's going on. It's pathetic.''

But nobody has had a more disheartening experience at Roland Garros than Pierce. Even before she allowed a 5-1 first-set lead to evaporate, the home crowd hissed at her misses, and it booed her throughout the second set of a 7-5, 6-2 loss to 36th-ranked Magui Serna of Spain.

Pierce has gained a reputation as a flashy player with a penchant for skin-tight tennis costumes, a power game of cosmic proportions and the slowest, most tortured service windup in the game. But the only glittering aspect of her persona today was the diamond ring on her left hand, reportedly an engagement gift from Baltimore Orioles second baseman Roberto Alomar. The tough French crowd responded to her murky play with hoots and jeers and insults.

Meanwhile, Serna, a 19-year-old baseliner/counterpuncher, provided the flash and became the beneficiary of the crowd's animosity toward Pierce. ''When it was 5-2 in the second and the crowd was like crazy against her,'' Serna said, ''I was like, 'Wow, what's that?' I mean, we're in Paris, she's from here, and the crowd is against her; maybe she's expected to win the tournament.''

Pierce said: ''It's not new. It's not the first time, and it probably won't be the last time, either, no matter what I do here.'' But she thought she had earned her adopted homeland's acceptance in 1994, when she cracked the Top Ten and made a charming consolation speech in French after being beaten in the final here by Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.

Pierce, who was born in Canada and raised in the United States but who has elected to play professionally as a representative of her mother's native France, has had a tenuous relationship with the French fans. She has been criticized by some for upstaging the homegrown players whose only allegiance is to the host country. She made her position shakier still last month by refusing the team captain Yannick Noah's invitation to represent France in the Fed Cup's opening round; when Pierce insisted that personal commitments kept her from showing up with the rest of the national team, Noah kicked her off the squad.

Pierce admitted that she heard the hecklers today, but, with a tinge of bitterness, she said that she has decided she is no longer traumatized by their treatment of her: ''If I win, I'm the French Mary Pierce, and if I lose, I'm the French American. I'd say I get more support everywhere else in the world than here.''

Pierce defeated Serna handily at Wimbledon last year, but she insisted that the surface, and not the pressure of trying to please the French fans, made the difference today.

''This is clay, and I guess her best surface is clay; she played really deep and made very few unforced errors,'' said Pierce, who committed 32, many of them in conjunction with the razzing she got from the gallery.

Pierce and Kafelnikov were the only seeded players to falter on the truncated schedule, but there were interesting results among matches that did get resolved, most notably the 6-0, 6-1 display of aggression by Serena Williams against Corina Morariu. Williams, at 16 a Roland Garros rookie, needed just 49 minutes to advance. Meanwhile, one of this event's elders, the 30-year-old Thomas Muster was nearly as efficient in a 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 dismissal of Boris Becker's protege, Nicolas Kiefer.

However, Muster's protege, 34th-ranked Andrea Gaudenzi of Italy, was upset by Armenia's 95th-ranked Sargis Sargsian, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4. Gaudenzi had been considered a dark horse to follow in the footsteps of his mentor and make a Grand Slam breakthrough here.

Muster acknowledged that third-seeded Marcelo Rios of Chile is the likeliest player to claim his first Grand Slam title on the final Sunday. Muster also deemed Rios a worthy successor to Sampras as the world's top player, a dethroning that will occur if Rios reaches the semifinals.

''Definitely by his results, I think he's the favorite, which doesn't mean much,'' said Muster, who also said he liked his own chances against Rios if both were at the top of their games. ''Could make a philosophy out of it,'' said Muster. But he won't get to test his theory unless the two meet in the semifinals.

Photo: Mary Pierce suffered a day of frustration in her upset loss to Magui Serna yesterday in the French Open. (Clive Brunskill/Allsport)